Reoccurring revenue from website production

I've been reading a few blogs recently where web designers talk about recurring revenue models.

It made me realise that this is where web differs from many of the areas we traditionally deal with. For most of us we have ongoing clients who come back to us as they need our services; we stay in touch to remind them who we are and the range of services we offer. Most of us aren't able to get retainers from clients to undertake set projects each month.

This is where web comes into it. Because of the constantly changing technology there is a need to keep websites up to date with browser developments, security threats, content updates etc.

There are also ongoing hosting costs that can be billed to the client.

Recently we have started reselling permission based email marketing services, an area that fits perfectly with the type of work we do.

We have a client base for whom we have designed websites and printed based materials. For all of these email marketing is an appealing marketing tool. As with all marketing efforts they need to be constant and regular.

These regular email marketing services give us an opportunity to make recurring revenue.

We also offer value-added services on top of the email marketing services. We will research, write and design, as well as produce HTML, email templates. Some of this we undertake inhouse while other parts we are able to outsource to our regular writers etc. We also offer to help them build a legal email marketing database.

So how do you get into this.

The starting point is to research what your clients need. Then find a technology partner that can help you deliver a service to fill that need. We did a lot of experimentation and found that not all technology suppliers fitted with our business model. We continued the search until we found a system that works for us and our clients.